Welcome to the Water Workbook
We recommend you use this workbook everyday for one week, by doing one exercise a day from Monday-Friday. Maintain the workbook for one week and repeat once a month to stay in tune with your water element. These exercises are meant to be completed in under ten minutes, for maximum impact each day.
The exercises we offer below may seem simple or straightforward, but you would be surprised how much research has gone into what truly makes a difference in expressing your water element (and all that encompasses) effectively.
A large part of the workbook section of balancing your water is based not only on a spiritual and holistic approach, but also on scientifically backed research. We want to offer you the absolute best approach to living everyday with a fully balanced water.
A problem we have run into with advice offered in some self-help books or other courses is that they may do more harm than good. For example, the power of positive thinking is something we encourage – yet if not done properly, it can be a factor in increased misery. Positive thinking is not the ability to simply push negative thoughts out of your mind. Thought suppression has been shown in research studies to actually increase misery, instead of decrease it. So trying to avoid the bad fight with your partner or family member, or trying to suppress that really embarrassing thing you may have experienced that day is only feeding your blocked water, not balancing it. Positive thinking is about challenging your beliefs, accepting negative aspects of ourselves and others, and accepting ourselves for our faults and being okay with them.
One other aspect of this workbook is understanding why we require you to write these things down, instead of just thinking about them. In several studies, it has shown that writing down your experiences, thoughts or feelings leads to a large boost in well-being both mentally, physiologically and physically. This means a reduction in health problems and an increase in self-esteem and happiness. This same effect is not seen when we talk aloud with others or simply spend time thinking about (click here if you wish to read about these studies). One explanation for this is that when we speak/think things are largely unstructured, chaotic and may lead to confusion. Writing on the other hand, is more structured, it forces to create a kind of storyline, which leads to better understanding of what happened and how you feel about it. This creates the opening for a solution and a peace with the situation. For this exercise we highly encourage you to purchase our workbook – it can travel anywhere with you, it promotes using a pencil and paper, and it truly will make a difference in your accountability with this course.
1. The Gratitude Attitude
One of the most important aspects to a balanced water is practicing and experiencing gratitude. Why?
Gratitude is the expression of thanks and appreciation. It’s benefits are numerous and help people feel good. It helps you make new friends and helps them see you in a positive light, it improves physical health, improves psychological health (reduces toxic emotions, stress, envy, resentment, frustration to regret), it enhances empathy and reduces aggression, it improves self-esteem, helps you sleep better, and increases mental strength (which is important for adaptability and overcoming stress).
It’s important to note, feeling grateful for something positive in your life, such as good health – is not the same as being grateful for not having cancer. It’s about knowing what you are grateful for, not what you are grateful for NOT. This means you are able to lower your defences and let the world in, this kind of vulnerability allows you to be truly touched by earth, it’s inhabitants and the sights, sounds and smells of what is around you. It isn’t just observed, but instead absorbed. On the flip side, it also makes you open to being hurt by the ugly and pain in the world – which is why it also requires you to be strong. Fortunately, gratitude is a skill that you can improve. Practice seeing the beauty and goodness in life, and continue to do so even as you face difficulties. By maintaining your openness and appreciation for life’s blessings, you will feel the power that gratitude has to offer.
There are many things in your life for which to be grateful. These might include having close friends, being in a wonderful relationship, benefiting from sacrifices that others have made for you, being part of a supportive family, and enjoying good health, a nice home, or enough food on the table. Alternatively, you might have a job that you love, have happy memories of the past, or recently have had a nice experience, such as savoring an especially lovely cup of coffee, enjoying the smile of a stranger, having your dog welcome you home, eating a great meal, or stopping to smell the flowers. Think back over the past week and list three of these things.
2. The Perfect Inner Self
Another way of creating a happier and more balanced life in water is in spending time writing and getting in touch with your perfect ideal situation or self. This type of excercise is usually done by envisioning your perfect partner, your ideal work situation, your perfect house, etc. This may seem fairly straightforward – but there is this exercise can be a double edged sword.
Visualizing a perfect future, partner, etc. can actually be ineffective, or at worst, harmful if not done properly. While it can make us feel better and is effective in helping balance water, without combining it with other elements (like fire, earth and air) it leaves us without actually achieving any of these goals. This form of “mental escapism” without combining it with motivation, creativity and practicality (key components of the other three elements) can leave you unprepared for the up’s and down’s of life, success and increases your chance of giving up at the first sign of hardship, instead of persisting in the face of failure.
So while this exercise is very good at helping open the water element and keeping it balanced, it’s important to realize in order to transform dreams into a reality we need to incorporate more.
Spend a few moments writing about your life in the future. Imagine that everything has gone really well. Be realistic, but imagine that you have worked hard and achieved all of your aims and ambitions. Imagine that you have become the person that you really want to be, and that your personal and professional life feels like a dream come true.
1. The Gratitude Attitude
One of the most important aspects to a balanced water is practicing and experiencing gratitude. Why?
Gratitude is the expression of thanks and appreciation. It’s benefits are numerous and help people feel good. It helps you make new friends and helps them see you in a positive light, it improves physical health, improves psychological health (reduces toxic emotions, stress, envy, resentment, frustration to regret), it enhances empathy and reduces aggression, it improves self-esteem, helps you sleep better, and increases mental strength (which is important for adaptability and overcoming stress).
It’s important to note, feeling grateful for something positive in your life, such as good health – is not the same as being grateful for not having cancer. It’s about knowing what you are grateful for, not what you are grateful for NOT. This means you are able to lower your defences and let the world in, this kind of vulnerability allows you to be truly touched by earth, it’s inhabitants and the sights, sounds and smells of what is around you. It isn’t just observed, but instead absorbed. On the flip side, it also makes you open to being hurt by the ugly and pain in the world – which is why it also requires you to be strong. Fortunately, gratitude is a skill that you can improve. Practice seeing the beauty and goodness in life, and continue to do so even as you face difficulties. By maintaining your openness and appreciation for life’s blessings, you will feel the power that gratitude has to offer.